Leader Development Tip.

What defines truly great leadership? If you have aspirations to be one or want some high-level leadership role, you’ve probably asked yourself this question before, and it’s a difficult one to answer.

Every leader is different, and necessarily so—the same person who excels in one organization could just as easily fail in another. However, if you look closely, you will start to see that there is a pattern in the attributes of people who succeed at the highest levels. Extraordinary leaders possess certain intangible qualities that often fall between the lines of traditional leadership models, so they can be hard to identify and even harder to develop. After more than ten years of observing people at leadership levels, I have learned what these subtle behaviors are, and how aspiring leaders can understand and develop the one that will make them successful within their respective organizations. I have found that the following behavior to be fundamental to executive success.

Would you like to discover this quality in yourself and advance on the path to truly great leadership?

WISDOM: the correct application of knowledge.

Knowledge gleaned from previous experiences does not become wisdom until it is consciously applied to new circumstances. Great leaders don’t just think about what happened, they think about why it happened.

Develop this: Build wisdom by designating time for self-reflection. Reserve an hour each week to think about the “Truly Important.” What decisions did you make? What have you learned in the last week?